As part of our commemoration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, the department has been sharing the latest data highlighting the status of Asian-American and Pacific Islanders in our nation’s labor market.

Secretary Perez kicked off the blog series by talking about the overall employment situation for AAPI communities, and Deputy Secretary Chris Lu followed with a discussion on the importance of expanding opportunities through education for AAPIs. I’m turning to a topic that doesn’t get much attention – AAPIs, when facing unemployment, tend to remain unemployed for a long time.

Asian-Americans, as a group, have the lowest unemployment rate (5.2 percent in 2013) compared to the nation as a whole (7.4 percent in 2013). This fact may mask the challenges Asian-Americans experience when faced with unemployment. While Asians are less likely to be unemployed, those who are face longer durations of unemployment (20 weeks) compared to whites (16 weeks) or Hispanics (15 weeks).

AAPIs belong to a diverse community where the impact of unemployment varies broadly depending on the country of origin, among other factors. The median duration of unemployment for Korean-Americans is 15 weeks, while the median duration of unemployment for Vietnamese-Americans is 27 weeks. Vietnamese are closely followed by “Other Asians,” which includes smaller Asian populations like Laotians, Cambodians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Hmong, Burmese and Nepalese.

Making sure our high school students are college and career-ready is major focus of President Obama’s jobs-driven training agenda, and is also central his goal for the United States to lead the world in college completion by 2020.

That’s why, as we prepare for the upcoming school year, the departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Labor are working together to help local school systems around the country makes use of federal resources to help ensure our young people are the best-prepared workers in the world.

Secretary Tom Perez visits the Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy in Chicago, a school that aims to prepare students for college and the world of work.

School counselors on are the front lines of preparing our students for college and careers. However, the number of counselors in schools today is not keeping up with the growing student population, which may mean not every student is getting the attention they need to get started on the right career path.

This is where federal job training services can help. By leveraging the resources available from the nearly 2,500 American Job Centers around the country, schools can ensure their students are getting the most up-to-date information about the job market and what education and training is necessary to land their dream job.

American Job Centers can supplement the great work of school counselors by providing career development services and local labor market information; offering career counseling, resume and interview help; sharing information about Registered Apprenticeships and high school alternative programs like Job Corps and YouthBuild; and helping connect students to summer and year-around employment opportunities.

Some states have already begun to integrate these services: for example, in Nebraska, state education and labor officials helped establish the Nebraska Career Education program, which provides career exploration resources for educators, students, job seekers and employers.

Or take Minneapolis Promise, a local initiative that uses private funding to locate College and Career Centers inside all seven Minneapolis public high schools and eight specialty high schools. The centers offer students with career and college planning resources, trained career counselors to guide students and an online career planning tool to help each ninth-grader develop a personalized “My Life Plan.”

Connecting workforce services to education makes common sense. These connections – which already help job seekers and employers to connect with one another – will help students better understand the skills they need to succeed in today’s job market, while they are in a position to make those decisions at an earlier age.

My federal colleagues and I have sent a jointly signed letter to education, workforce development, social services and private-sector leaders around the country asking them to join us in our commitment to help high schools take advantage of the resources available through their local American Job Centers.

Working together at the federal, state and local level, we can prepare our students for future jobs and secure the United States’ place in the global economy for decades to come. 

Portia Wu is the assistant secretary of labor for employment and training. Explore job training and career resources at www.dol.gov/FindYourPath, and join the conversation on Twitter using #FindYourPath.

Editor’s note: As we continue to post Job Corps stories in honor of its 50^th anniversary, we want to hear from you. Submit your story through our Web form here − or share on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #JobCorps50.

Archival photo of the Job Corps center in Timberlake, Oregon

Fifty years ago this summer, President Lyndon B. Johnson launched a series of programs aimed at restoring our nation’s fundamental promise of equality and opportunity. The July 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the Economic Opportunity Act, signed on Aug. 20 of that year, were twin pillars of the “War on Poverty” – both committed to extending the American Dream to those who had been unjustly excluded.

One of the key elements of the latter bill was the establishment of Job Corps, a residential education and training program for disadvantaged young people ages 16-24. Job Corps is based on a value as American as they come, and it remains the animating principle of our opportunity agenda today: no matter where you started out in life or what ZIP code you live in, you should have the chance to make it.

Archival photo of the Job Corps center in Tongue Point, Oregon

According to Job Corps records, 17-year-old Charles Logan of Baltimore was the first person to register for training. The first Job Corps center was located at Catoctin Mountain Park, near Thurmont, Maryland, where the students – all men – worked in maintenance and construction of park amenities, like trail signs, for the National Park Service. Johnson appointed Sargent Shriver, who had set up the Peace Corps for President Kennedy, as the first director of the Office of Economic Opportunity and the architect of Job Corps. He proved to be the deft and politically astute leader the program needed to survive, especially in response to local opposition to new Job Corps centers and the country’s preoccupation with the Vietnam War.

Nearly 2.7 million students have benefited from Shriver’s persistence and sound management. At 125 centers in 48 states, students today learn the skills necessary to succeed in good jobs with high-growth potential in a dynamic economy. Graduates learn career skills in more than 100 areas – from automotive maintenance to information technology, from health care to hospitality, from construction to IT. Some have become doctors, judges and entertainment executives.

Secretary Perez with students at the Job Corps center in Palmer, Alaska, July 20, 2014

Responsiveness to economic change has been essential to Job Corps’ continued success. Just last week President Obama signed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act into law – rejuvenating our investment in workforce training and aligning it with the needs of employers.

Also, Vice President Biden released a report outlining recommendations for job-driven training models based on evidence of what works. That report includes a sound blueprint for maintaining Job Corps as a cutting-edge program in the years to come.

While we must remain vigilant about maintaining high standards of excellence and accountability at Job Corps, we must not lose faith in the idea that lifting up those who have been given so little makes our nation stronger. Job Corps represents the best of who we are. There is no other program like it.

Portia Wu is the assistant secretary of labor for employment and training.

Correction:Thanks to Angela and Scott for pointing out our mistake, which has been corrected. Best of luck in finding early Job Corps students who can talk about their experiences in those years. If you succeed in tracking down these stories, we’d love it if you would share them with us. We’re also looking for men and women who can share their Job Corps experiences, so if anyone has a story tell, please submit it through our Web form here.

For years, Julian performed the incredibly hard work of harvesting onions and vegetables at a farm in upstate New York, making only $8.50 an hour. As a seasonal farm worker, the pay was barely enough to take care of his family.  He wanted to make a change, learn some new skills and start a new career that would give him the resources to support his family.

Through a program supported by the U.S. Labor Department, Julian received guidance on starting a new career as a commercial truck drive and helped him enroll in a training program to help him get the necessary certifications to start his new job.

Julian successfully completed his training, passed his road test, and received his commercial driver license and today, Julian is successfully employed by a trucking company where he now makes $20.17 per hour with benefits.

Julian’s story is a reality because of a commitment made by 50 years ago President Lyndon B. Johnson to restoring our nation’s fundamental promise of equality and opportunity. The 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the Economic Opportunity Act, signed on Aug. 20 of that year, were twin pillars of the “War on Poverty” –to extend the American Dream to those who had been unjustly excluded.

One of the key elements of the latter bill was the establishment of programs for migrant and seasonal farmworkers that would assist these workers and their families with services such as education, housing, and childcare.

Fifty years later, these Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Programs, now referred to as the National Farmworker Job Program, continues to counter the chronic unemployment and underemployment experienced by many working in agricultural labor.

NFJP services help farmworkers retain and stabilize their current agriculture jobs, as well as enable them to participate in training and enter new careers that offer higher wages and a more stable employment outlook.  Currently the department provides employment and training grants to 52 grantees in all states but Alaska and Washington DC.  The department also awards grants to various regions around the country to provide permanent and temporary housing assistance to farmworkers and their families.

Over the last half-century thousands of farmworkers like Julian have benefited from NFJP services. In 2012 over 21,000 MSFWs were served, and in the past 14 years nearly 220,000 individuals have received services.

Every day, the hard work of farmworkers across the country make it possible to put food on our tables and feed our families. The recently signed Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 reauthorizes the NFJP and reconfirms the nation’s commitment to supporting farmworkers and their families.

The department is proud to continue the long tradition of serving farmworkers and their families through employment and training opportunities, services to youth, and housing assistance.

Portia Wu is the assistant secretary of labor for employment and training.